Army Puts Young Scientist Interns To Work On Real Research

The Army is working with young scientists in developing insect-sized robots that can infiltrate buildings and scope them out before troops go in. These autonomous robots will be built with either heat or acoustic sensors in order to help determine threats in a possibly dangerous situation.

These young scientists are actually summer interns at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, or ARL. They have been working alongside Army civilian scientists to help find solutions to different technological issues. One intern, Keith McKinzie, is working alongside Chris Kroninger, an ARL aerospace engineer, in studying the movement of a robotic wing no larger than the wing of a fruit fly.

Their work is just part of the work going into that of the small autonomous robots they hope to create.McKinzie said of his internship, “You’re doing real research. It’s not results they’re going to throw away later.”

Mckinzie aspires to be a mechanical engineer and work in the aviation field.